In recent years, the use of electronic money has become widespread. In electronic money, amount information called value is related to money value and fund settlement is performed by increasing or decreasing the value balance.
FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining an existing electronic money system.
A mobile terminal 5 is a mobile terminal or the like which is owned by the user and is formed as a smartphone, a mobile telephone, a game console, a tablet computer, or the like, and, in an IC chip incorporated thereinto or attached thereto, the balance of value, an IC chip ID by which the IC chip is identified, an electronic money number, and so forth are recorded. Moreover, there is also an electronic money card 100 having the IC chip incorporated thereinto or attached thereto.
A method of holding value in a user's-side IC chip in this manner is called a stored value type.
An asynchronous payment terminal 7 is installed in a store, an automatic vending machine, and so forth, and performs payment by value by reducing the value balance stored in the IC chip by performing short-distance radio communication with the IC chip of the mobile terminal 5 or the electronic money card 100.
The asynchronous payment terminal 7 completes the payment processing locally between the asynchronous payment terminal 7 and the IC chip of the user without connecting to an electronic money server 2 and records the transaction history as log data.
Then, the asynchronous payment terminal 7 collectively sends the log data to the electronic money server 2 later at regular or irregular intervals.
The reason why the asynchronous payment terminal 7 is called “asynchronous” is that the asynchronous payment terminal completes the payment processing locally without being synchronous with the electronic money server 2.
In such a system of stored value-type electronic money, since the value balance is stored in the IC chip in advance and the value balance is reduced at the time of payment, if there is not enough value, it is impossible to perform payment. This makes it necessary for processing called recharging that increases the balance of value stored in the IC chip. This recharging is generally performed in exchange for money in the store and the exchange value of value is guaranteed.
On the other hand, in recent years, the communications capacity of the network has been remarkably improved, and a server management-type system that manages value with an electronic money server and performs payment processing on the electronic money server's side has also become known. It is expected that, with the improvement of a network infrastructure, such a server management-type system will become gradually widespread.
In a system of server-type electronic money, since value is not managed by an IC chip, it is necessary to synchronize it with value managed by the electronic money server 2 at all times. Therefore, a payment terminal used is a synchronous-type payment terminal, not the asynchronous-type payment terminal 7. Thus, the system of server-type electronic money is predicated on the presence of a synchronous payment terminal.